Backstory: Over a year ago I made a post about a spicy salsa from a restaurant near my house. From the post I learned that it was likely a tomatillo salsa, probably with arbols. Someone also recommended asking the restaurant. I wanted to do this without offending them as they're a small family owned business. I've asked 3 times now, 2 times the FOH people did not know, and the last time a cook came out who didn't speak much english and the only thing he said was "habanero", and when I asked "is there tomatillo?" he said "ummm, yes", it was a bit awkward so I just said "thanks" at let him get back to work. Yesterday I decided I would try again at cracking this code.
Here is my description of the salsa from the restaurant:
VERY spicy, VERY smooth (essentially watery), slightly smokey, and non-tomato-y. It's not chunky like a normal salsa but still sticks well to a chip, has tiny white seeds and some black specks in it. I love spicy foods and the heat level on this stuff is 8-9/10 on my scale. Any family member or friend I've gotten to try this salsa has not taken a second bite because of its spice. I've attached a photo below that shows the color, as well as the viscosity and smoothness on the chip.
I tried making some at home yesterday, Attempt #1 shows the base recipe that I used, and the other attempts show what I changed. Noticeably the colors and consistency were all incorrect. In terms of consistency, you can see in each bowl the imprint left by dipping a chip, which does not happen with the watery restaurant salsa. The colors got better as I went on (adding more arbol), but the flavor in all of them was just not right. I don't know exactly how to describe it, it's not that far off, it feels like it's just missing an ingredient or two.
I'd love to hear some suggestions on what I should change. For example, how do I get the salsa to be thin without losing the spicyness? How do I get that deep red color without adding too many arbol? etc. If you guys have any questions that would help you determine those things, let me know!
Also, just figured I would say this recipe from Rick Bayless is the closest I can find online in color and consistency. I've made it in the past but the arbol flavor was too much compared to the restaurant salsa, it also wasn't as thin (but thinner than the ones I made yesterday), and there was noticeably a lot more seeds.
by Fearless_Counter_413
4 Comments
depending on whether or not the Arbol are toasted first will impact the color. un-toasted is more orange, toasted is more brown.
You mention a smokey taste, have you bought some other varieties of dried pepper to smell/taste and see if they might be used? I’m thinking maybe Japones which can have a brown color [https://www.reddit.com/r/SalsaSnobs/comments/hi1bft/salsa_de_chile_japones/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SalsaSnobs/comments/hi1bft/salsa_de_chile_japones/)
*For example, how do I get the salsa to be thin without losing the spicyness?*
Some salsas are purposely watered down with a little bit of chicken or beef broth.
As the previous post mentioned, the color of roasting vs. boiling them. I traditionally boil mine, also I suggest maybe adding a few gaujillo chile, boil this with the arbol chilies. These help with color, and flavor, with little to no spice.
The gaujilo Chiles will take substantially longer to soften up. Remove seeds prior to boiling. Another layer of complexity, is adding a quarter or half an onion to this pot., and even your garlic cloves. Once everything softens up. You are good to use it. Save your water, add this flavor water to your salsa to thin things out.
Combine with your other thoughts and see what happens. Have you tasted any hints of lime in the salsa? The only reason I ask is that it can help with thinning out.
You are using too much oil. The oil should emulsify into the liquid and give it that chip coating gloss, but your end result almost looks like a mayo.
Maybe they use a red onion for color. Also there could be some just straight up chicken bullion powder added for msg and color.
Potentially they are steeping the arbol in hot water instead of frying the arbol. Then maybe just the habanero were charred.
I think the guy from your last post that had 11 upvotes was right.
Arbols, habaneros, and tamatillos.
Here’s a very red salsa that is just dried arbols and tamatillos. I would do something like this but replace some of the arbols with habanero to make it more orange.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/toasted-chile-de-arbol-and-tomatillo-salsa